Seems like he was always asleep, until Odin created the world out of his body.
He drank the milk of the cow Auðumbla, and he is illustrated to be conscious while doing so, but that need not be. Jotun are spontaneously created from his armpits, it is not clear he created them. And though he is shown as awake when he was killed by some illustrations, I did not find language anywhere that says he was awake and he fought back.
My research is limited to wikipedia and online sources, hoping for some input from experts.